Sürgü Fault
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sürgü Fault Zone (Sürgü Fay Zonu) is a major fault zone in south-central Anatolia. It contains the Sürgü fault. Rupture on this fault caused the second major (M>7) earthquake during the 2023 Gaziantep-Kahramanmaraş earthquakes that started in February 2023.
Sürgü Fault Zone | |
---|---|
Location | Eastern and south-central Turkey |
Country | Turkey |
Tectonics | |
Plate | Anatolian Plate |
Earthquakes | 1544 1986 Malatya earthquake 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake |
The fault zone extends (west to east) from Göksun to Çelikhan where it merges into the East Anatolian Fault.[1] It is a "major fault recognized in the field" of geosciences and "was known to be capable of very significant earthquakes" such as in 1544 and 1986.[2] As of 2023 it has been estimated to have an activated length of about 300 kilometres (300,000 m).[3]
During the 2023 Gaziantep-Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, the Sürgü Fault experienced a major earthquake of Mw 7.6, which was followed by many aftershocks along the active length of the faultline.[4]